Rest is a rich biblical theme throughout the Bible. In this post we will see what the Tawrat says about this rest. In another post we will look at what the Injil says.

In Exodus 20 the prophet Moses wrote the 10 commandments. One of them was to keep the Sabbath holy, that is, to not work on the Sabbath. The reason for this command is given in verse 11, Moses wrote, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” The story of creation is told in Genesis 1-2. It is clear that God created and ordered the world in six days and then rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath.

Obviously God’s rest on the seventh day is not owing to any deficiency in him. He has all strength and he never grows tired or weary (“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is  the everlasting God,the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable” [Isaiah 40:28].) God did not rest on the seventh day because he was tired. God rested because he was finished. He did not rest in order to recuperate. He rested because his work of creation was complete.

Several times the Bible speaks of God giving his people rest from their enemies. God made this promise to the prophet David who was king over his people, “I will give you rest from all your enemies” (2 Samuel 7:11). This is exactly what we see. By the end of David’s life he had rest from all his enemies so that there was peace in the land.

Shortly before David died he encouraged his son Solomon and the people by saying, “Is not the Lord your God with you? And has he not given you peace on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and his people. Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God. Arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built for the name of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 22:18-19).

The rest he describes is a rest of peace. It is a rest that includes safety from those who would destroy them. God had given the people peaceful rest so that they would seek him. He had given them rest so that they could focus all of their attention on worshipping him.

This is the rest he offers us. A freedom from fear. A freedom from working to secure our own safety. A freedom to worship. A freedom to enjoy God. A freedom to be at peace.

Related Posts:
The Prophet Noah
Rest: The Meaning of Noah – Part 2
Rest: The Meaning of Noah – Part 3

I love music (in college I initially was a music major and dreamed of playing jazz for a living). Having studying music theory I understand well the significance of Johann Sebastian Bach. No one person is more important in the history of western music than him. One of things I really appreciate about Bach is his perspective on the purpose of music.

Sam Crabtree writes:

Today is the 325th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, who said, “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”

If one’s soul pursues delight in music without regard to glorifying God, music becomes an idol that eventually disappoints and robs.

But if one’s soul finds delight in glorifying God with music, then the two things (the glorifying of God and the refreshment of the soul) are not two things, but one.

Full disclosure said in a low voice with face looking down: I don’t actually enjoy listening to his music.

As I look at the Psalms, I’m amazed at how little we do and how much He does.  For example:

Psalm 23:1-3

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me besides still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and [he] heard my cry
He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog,
and [he] set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Psalm 55:22

Cast your burden on the LORD,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Psalm 91:14-16

Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and [I will] honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and [I will] show him my salvation.

In summary, all I need to do is come poor and needy because He comes to me rich in mercy. Hallelujah!

This is a great video of an Arabic Christmas Carol. It brings together things that don’t seem to fit and yet are true of our Savior. Certainly some of you will watch this and think that this could never happen, that God could never do this – you may even think it is blasphemy. I simply ask each of you to remember that God is God and he is in the heavens and does as he pleases. Who are we to tell him what he can and cannot do? Then consider how utterly unique Jesus Christ is in his birth (who else can claim to be born of a virgin?!).

In the first post we pointed out that it was Aaron and his sons who gave this blessing to the people and they were the ones selected because they were the priests. Unfortunately, many of us today and have learned that pastors have taken the place of priests, meaning that the role of the priests before Christ is now carried out by pastors after Christ. That is dead wrong. First of all Jesus is the great high priest. The whole priesthood did not foreshadow pastors; it foreshadowed Jesus. “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). But he was a high priest who truly atoned for our sin and brought us to God. “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:11-12).

But not only does the idea of pastors taking the place of priests fall short because Jesus is our high priest; it also falls short because there is something radically new about the people of God after Christ. All followers of Jesus Christ are priests. Peter says, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5) and “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

And John tells us in Revelation that by Christ’s blood he has “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (Revelation 1:6). My point is this: It is the priests who give the blessing to the people so that the name of God will be set on them. All believers in Jesus Christ are priests. Therefore each one of us is to bless others.

So here is the simple summary. 1) God wants to bless you. He wants to do good to you. He wants to encourage you. He wants to give you grace and peace. He wants to show his glory and declare his pleasure to you. 2) This blessing that God wants to give you only happens because of Jesus Christ – who he is and what he did. And 3) as believers in Jesus Christ we are priests who ought to be blessing one another.

Here are some blessings you can share with others:

1. 1 Kings 8:57-58
The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers.

2. Psalm 20:1-4
May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion! May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!

3. Romans 15:5-6
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

5. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

6. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

7. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

8. 2 Thessalonians 3:5
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

9. 2 Thessalonians 3:16
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

See Also:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Jesus Fulfills this Blessing

The Lord bless you

Jesus also wanted to bless, for in the gospel of Mark the children come to him and it says, “And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them” (Mark 10:16). Even more, it is in Jesus that God’s blessing comes. “So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14). Paul sums up the blessing that is in Christ in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

And keep you

Jesus is the Good Shepherd and as our good shepherd he keeps us. “27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28). No one will snatch us out of Christ’s hand because no can. He is too strong and he is keeping us safe.

The Lord make his face shine upon you

When Jesus is seen in his glory, his face shines. “1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light” (Matthew 17:1-2). “In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength” (Revelation 1:16).

And it is in the face of Christ that we behold the glory of God. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). It is by seeing this light that we are saved.

And be gracious to you

Jesus is full of grace as John says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). It is through the grace of Christ that we are saved, “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Acts 15:11). And God’s grace only comes through Jesus, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:4). “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:5-6). The very last verse of the Bible says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Revelation 22:21).

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you

God lifts up his face and looks favorably upon us because Jesus suffered, died and removed the wrath of God against us. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:31-32)? Because of Jesus Christ, God now works all things together for the good of those who love him.

And give you peace

Hundreds of years before he was born, Jesus Christ was called the Prince of Peace (see Isaiah 9:6). He is the one who brings peace. He is the one who makes peace. He is the one in whom we have peace. “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We can have peace because Jesus has overcome the world. He has defeated our enemies and is Lord over all. Therefore, we can have peace free from anxiety. But best of all, he has brought us peace with God by his death and resurrection. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1).

This whole blessing hinges on Jesus Christ because it is through Jesus Christ that we get any good thing. God created us in his image, but we have rebelled against him. We disobey him and refuse to submit to his authority. We dishonor him daily. God is holy and must deal with our sin. But rather than merely destroy us for our treachery, he sent his only son to take our punishment for us. Jesus, the eternal son of God, came from heaven and put on flesh. He became man. He lived a holy and righteous life and ultimately went to the cross in order to remove the wrath of God from us. He died in our place and then rose again so that all who believe in him would have eternal life. Any good that we have is owing to the grace of God in Jesus Christ because of the cross of Christ. It is Jesus who gives this blessing in Numbers meaning.

See Also:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 4

When Jesus Christ taught his disciples about fasting he said, “When you fast . . .” (Matthew 6:16), not “If you fast. . .” Just as the Lord expected his followers to give alms and to pray, he also expected that they would fast.

But the purpose of biblical fasting is different than the purpose of Islamic fasting. For Muslims fasting during Ramadan is how one earns merit from God and receives forgiveness of sins. Christians don’t fast in order to earn salvation or forgiveness of sins. God has already accomplished that through Jesus Christ and there is nothing we can add (“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” [Ephesians 2:8-9]). Instead we fast in order to display the depth of our desire for God. Fasting is like an exclamation point on our prayers, saying, “God we want you and need you more than any earthly thing.” It is a way of weaning ourselves from the pleasures of the world so that our pleasure will be solely fixed on God.

One significant difference is that there is much more freedom to do different kinds of fasts. For example, one could fast as Muslims fast in Ramadan (no food or drink from sunrise to sunset) or one could abstain from food for 24 hours or for multiple days or even weeks. Sometimes it is also helpful to our souls to fast from things other than food. For example it can be good to fast from electronic media (TV, internet, ipod, etc.) in order to refocus  our hearts on God. But however we fast the point is that Christians also are called to fast as one of the means we grow in our love for our Lord.

A great resource on fasting is John Piper’s book A Hunger for God. You can read it free online. For any Arabic readers, you can also order an Arabic copy.

The second line of the blessing says, “The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you” (v. 25). I’m going to skip over the first part for now and come back to it. But the second part of this second line is a request that the Lord be gracious to us. Grace is God’s unmerited, free love that does good things for us we do not deserve. You cannot earn grace because once it is earned it is no longer grace. Grace is free and as sinful creatures we don’t deserve anything good from our Creator. Imagine a kingdom with rebels seeking to the overthrow the king. If in the midst of their war preparations and attack on his throne the king feeds and clothes them and promises them clemency if they renounce their rebellion, that is grace. They don’t deserve to be fed. They don’t deserve to be clothed and they certainly don’t deserve clemency. But the king gives it because he is gracious. In this blessing we are seeking God’s grace – that he would do good things for us we do not deserve.

The third line says, “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (v. 26). Again I will skip the first part and come back it to it. The final request of the blessing is for the peace of God. This is peace with others – freedom from war and conflict. This is peace with ourselves – freedom from anxiety, worry and guilt. And it is peace with God – freedom from wrath and the privilege of being sons and daughters of the King.

Now let’s come back to the first part of verses 25 and 26. “The Lord make his face to shine upon you” and “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you.” I pair these together because the word for “countenance” and “face” is the same word. So it literally reads, “The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his face upon you and give you peace.” So what does it mean for God to make his face shine upon us? And what does it mean for him to lift up his face upon us?

God shining his face upon us is connected to salvation. “Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love” (Psalm 31:16). “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved” (Psalm 80:3, also v. 7, 19). God’s shining face brings salvation because it means that we see the glory of God: the goodness of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God and the love of God.

Verse 26 isn’t very different than verse 25. Instead of making his face shine, it requests God to lift up his face upon us. They almost mean the same thing and there is much overlap. But in this case we are not merely asking to see the glory of God’s face, which will save us, we are asking that his face be turned toward us in such a way that we would feel his pleasure. This is more than God saving us; it is God taking pleasure in us, enjoying us.

We can see this sense of God being pleased with us when we see that for God to hide his face means that he is angry. “Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods” (Deut 31:17-18). When God lifts up the light of his countenance, that is, his face, upon us it shows that he is not angry with us, but is pleased. He is looking on us for our good.

God wants to bless you. He wants to keep you. He wants to make his face to shine upon you. He wants to be gracious to you. He wants to lift up his countenance upon you. And he wants to give you peace. Look at verse 27, “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” By blessing the Israelites, the priests were putting the name of the Lord upon the people of Israel.

The name of God symbolizes the whole of who God is. And by putting his name upon the people, he is declaring that these people belong to him. They are his. We see the culmination of this in Revelation 22:1-5.

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

See Also:
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4

In 2007 and 2008 I had the privilege and honor of serving as the Interim Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. At the end of each service I delivered the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” These weren’t just words. They were blessings spoken over God’s people that were (I believe) empowered by God so that his blessing really did fall on them. For my last sermon to this precious church I preached through this great blessing. I thought I would divide the sermon up into a few posts and share it with you. I hope it will encourage you to speak blessings into other people’s lives.

The Lord Bless You

22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.  27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” – Numbers 6:22-27

The first thing we should see regarding this blessing is that it was God who initiated it. “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying . . .” (v. 22). Moses didn’t come to God and say, “Lord, I think it would be a good idea to bless the people, what do you think?” He didn’t say, “Lord, will you bless the people?” The idea to give a blessing to the people comes from God. This is very significant because it means that God wants to bless his people. He doesn’t bless begrudgingly; he blesses willingly and gladly. “When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness” (Num 24:1).

Before we examine the blessing we need to see who was to give this blessing. Aaron and his sons are the ones who give the blessing to the people. Blessing the people was a function of the priests, for Aaron and his sons were the priests. Aaron was the high priest and his sons were also priests who assisted him. We will come back to this later, but for now we note that the priests gave the blessing.

The actual blessing God wanted the priests to speak over the people begins in verse 24:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

There are three lines. What do you notice about each line? The Lord is explicitly stated as the subject of each line. The point is that God and God alone, Yahweh, the Creator of the Earth is the one who can do these things. There is no blessing apart from God. You will not be kept apart from the Lord. There is no grace and no peace apart from God and there is no other face that we want to shine on us.

The blessing is a prayer. The priests are asking the Lord to bless, keep, make his face shine, be gracious, lift up his countenance and give peace. But the blessing is spoken to the people. When we pray we don’t have to close our eyes, though we often do. But when I give the blessing at the end of the service I intentionally look at you, in your eyes, because I am speaking to you. I am speaking the blessing to you, not to God. But at the same time it is a form of prayer because my words of blessing to you are implicit requests to God to make them true.

The first line says, “The Lord bless you and keep you.” God blesses us by doing good to us. Blessing is connected to fruitfulness. In the covenant with Israel God promised that if they obeyed him and remained faithful he would bless them with a good land, abundant crops, safety, good livestock and large families. “The Lord bless you” means “the Lord do good to you.”

“And keep you.” This is so crucial. We need God to keep us. We need God to hold us so tight that no one can snatch us out of his hand. We need God to faithfully keep us or we will be lost. This is why Jesus prays, “Holy father, keep them in your name” (John 17:11). God keeps us alive. He keeps us believing. He keeps us trusting. He keeps us obeying. He keeps us in his name so that we do not fall away.

See Also:
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

And the earth.

HT: Vitamin Z